Millbank

Millbank is an area of central London in the city of Westminster. It derives its name from a watermill owned by Westminster Abbey that once stood near College Green, and it was once a place of plague pits, marshes, and a snipe hunting ground consisting of bogs and quagmires. Following the Battle of Worcester in September 1651, 4,000 defeated Cavaliers were imprisoned in the area before they would be sold as slaves to merchants trading with Africa andt he Carribean, and 1,200 of them died in the primitive, marshy conditions. The area was sparsely covered with residential houses prior to the development of Millbank Prison in 1816. During the 1930s, the area was extensively rebuilt to repair damage caused by the 1928 Thames flood disaster, and there are numerous parliamentary offices along the road.